BEPTON PARISH COUNCIL

Chairman: Mr. Howard Ewing
Clerk: Mrs. Lorraine Grocott, BEM, BA Hons (Local Policy)
23 West Meade, Milland, Nr Liphook, Hampshire, GU30 7NB
Tel 01428 741393… Email: postmaster@milland-wsc-pc.gov.uk
Website – http://www.bepton.org

MINUTES of the Meeting of BEPTON PARISH COUNCIL
Thursday 24 November 2016 at The Park House Hotel, Bepton Road

Present: Mr H Ewing (in the Chair), Mrs R Hart, Mr G Ryan , Mrs L Milner,
Mrs Alex Cunningham, Dr J Wilkinson
One Member of the Public

510. Apologies – Mrs C Bower
Cllr C Neville (District Councillor) Cllr Gordon McAra, (County Councillor)

511. Declaration of Interests of Members on Agenda –
Mr G Ryan – Bepton Church donation for 2017/18
Mr R Hart – Outreach Youth donation for 2017/18

512. Minutes of the Meeting 22 September, 2016 – were approved and signed.

513. Report from County Councillor – Cllr McAra reported on the following: –
a) Free flu jabs are available for pregnant women, people with certain conditions and those over 65 years of age.
b) Carers Exhibition event in The Grange on 7 December from 2-5pm to provide information for anyone interested in working as a Carer.
c) Rural Broadband – There are grants available until 1st February 2017 for commercial businesses in rural areas to upgrade to satellite dishes.
d) Drainage outside Frogmore, Bepton Road – Following discussion with Highways they have agreed to put a culvert on the corner so that the water will drain into the adjacent land. They will also programme in the raising of the footpath to reduce flooding.
e) WSCC Education – The County is the 5th lowest grant receiving body in the country. The grant funding for schools will be at risk. This could mean schools closing one day per week or a reduction of teaching hours.

Report from District Councillor – Cllr Neville reported on the following: –
a) The District Council is encouraging all parishes to have a Resilience Plan for emergencies.
Parishes should be aware of the most vulnerable in the community in case of power failures.
The Chairman advised that Bepton has an Emergency Plan for the winter which is on the website but not a Civil Emergency Plan. Residents to be advised of the Careline telephone number through the Bepton newsletter.
b) CDC will be introducing night-time car parking charges in the Chichester car parks next year.
c) CDC is discussing the idea of shared services in Chichester, in an effort, to reduce costs. Areas under consideration include IT and planning.
d) BT have advised that they wish to withdraw the telephone box services to almost 400 public telephone boxes throughout Sussex. Sussex Heritage Trust is urging towns and villages through Sussex to ‘adopt’ a kiosk to ensure its survival. Parishes can purchase the box for £1.
e) A Tim Peake Exhibition will be opening on Thursday 15 December at the Novium Museum in Chichester exactly a year since Major Tim Peake was launched into space.

Minutes of Bepton Parish Council meeting 24 November 2016

514. Matters arising from the Minutes
• Page 2 – Item 503 – Mrs Milner has spoken to Steve Hodd at Highways. The problem with the drainage outside Frogmore has been logged into the Highways programme. It may not be possible to improve the drainage as it is low lying and the water has nowhere to drain to.
• The dangerous manhole cover has been replaced and is now stable.
• The overgrown grass has been trimmed, the overhead branches cut back and the hedges cut.

515. Public Participation
Mr Beckett expressed his concern that his grass verge is gradually being eroded by people driving onto it. It was explained that if it is a Highway verge then it is difficult to do anything about it but if it is a private verge then it is best to contact Operation Crackdown with a photo of the problem.
The chairman reported that he had received an email from a local resident at Bepton Common complaining about cars parking on the footpath which runs from the allotments between Midhurst and Bepton to Pitsham Lane South. The parking causes people to have to step out in the road, some of whom are pushing baby buggies and taking children to school at a particularly dangerous point. An item will be included in the next village newsletter.
There was also a similar car parking problem with parking on the footpath outside Little Oaks at Bepton Village. The Park House had spoken to the tenants and asked that the Council let them know whether there continued to be problems.

516. Chairman’s Items
a) TAG Farnborough – Airspace Change Proposal – HE and CB attended a meeting of all the Parishes
affected by the Farnborough proposals in October. Representatives from Farnborough were there
to explained the proposals. They are saying that they need to do what is proposed to gain control of airspace around Farnborough. At present, some aircraft can randomly enter their airspace without telling them. This causes the air traffic controllers to divert aircraft approaching Farnborough and has an impact in terms of noise and air pollution on areas south of Farnborough (i.e. Bepton and others). By gaining control of the airspace, this will reduce noise and air pollution. Although there will be more aircraft flying above Bepton, will be at a higher height than at present. Therefore, Bepton shouldn’t notice any increase in noise. Air pollution isn’t an issue as these are descending aircraft and they don’t produce pollution. The diverted ones need to ascend, thereby causing pollution.
HE has responded to Farnborough on behalf of Bepton PC, objecting to their proposals as was discussed at the September meeting. He cited The National Planning Policy, Government Policy on flights over National Parks, amongst other issues.
b) Cycle Event 2nd October -The Chairman had received positive feedback from the community for the behaviour of the cyclists through the parish. He would feed this back to the organisers.

517. Community Fibre Partnership programme –
The meeting discussed the Community Broadband Initiative. The Chairman had provided a Paper for discussion – BT Community Fibre Initiative. After discussion, the council agreed to go ahead and seek a quote from BT. They decided not to cover the whole village. Instead they will focus on the South end, where the broadband speed is particularly low. However, they will discuss what might be possible by way of maximising the number of people who might benefit. This is an initiative under which they will work with local communities to deliver improved broadband. It is separate from WSCC’s Better Broadband programme, from which Bepton Village is unlikely to benefit.

This Initiative will do some exploratory work to see what solutions might be available. They will then give the Parish a quote for the cost, including what funding is available from BT, central government, other sources, etc. The understanding is that the community will have to raise part of the funding.

Minutes of Bepton Parish Council meeting, 24 November 2016
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518. Planning Report – Mrs Hart
a) Council’s response to applications: –
SDNP/16/03902/CND
Mr Ian Lawless of Gardeners Cottage requests a variation of condition 1 from planning permission SDNP/15/06243/HOUS of an addition of a window on the south elevation. Letter of no objection sent. Permit.
SDNP/16/05440/HOUS
Mr Dreckman and Miss Burden of 1 Fairoak Cottages, Severals Road requests permission to build a single storey rear extension and alterations. Letter of no objection sent. Await decision.

Other planning matters –
a) Minerals Plan – The Severals sand pits are not specified in the WSCC/SDNPA West Sussex Joint Minerals Local Plan. The sites specified are in the Horsham area and in the eastern part of West Sussex.
b) Planning Enforcement Complaints – From 1 November 2016, CDC have introduced an electronic Planning Enforcement complaint form on their website to report all breaches of planning control. This will mean that any complaints will be directed to the enforcement service.

519. Finance report – Mrs. Grocott RFO

The above payments were approved by the Council.

a) Review of the Clerks Contract – Effective from 1st November 2016 the Clerk will be paid a salary based on SCP 24 = £11.302 per hour. From April 2017, this will increase to £11.415 per hour. Expenses – £220 per annum based on use of home as office including consumables.
Hours are based on Total hours of 110 per annum.
Total salary £1,243.22 / expenses £220 = £1,463.22.
Gratuity: The Parish Council agreed to set aside a sum for a gratuity (the formula is based on final salary x years of service x 0.037) at the meeting on 6th October 2005. This liability is identified separately in the Parish Council’s accounts.
The Scheme of Conditions of Service of the National Joint Council for Local Government Services (“the Green Book”) applies to her employment. The agreement constitutes her Terms of Reference of Employment with the Council. Both parties signed the Contract.
b) Half year internal review of accounts – Mr Buckler had reviewed the accounts to half year ending on 30 September 2016. One invoice from Kerrytype dated 6.4.16 for £18.30 cheque no. 787 only had one signature. Public Liability shown as £5m. But should be £10m. Employers Liability not shown but it is £10m.
Minutes of Bepton Parish Council meeting 24 November 2016
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c) Proposals for the Precept 2017/18

The Precept of £4,820 was approved for 2017/18.

520. Telephone Box at Bepton Common
As stated in Item 513 d) BT are proposing to remove 390 payphones – red kiosks and other types and have written to local councils outlining their plans. It was noted that the kiosk on the Bepton Road is not working at present. The community can ‘Adopt a Kiosk’ for £1. Some of the red K6-type phone boxes have already been listed. Many old phone boxes have been converted into defibrillator stations, mini libraries and local information points. It was a suggested that if the community decided to adopt the kiosk it would be better placed on Severals Green instead of the main road. Following discussion, it was decided to place an item in the Newsletter by of way of consulting the community on their thoughts as to whether they want to keep the kiosk and if so whether they are willing to help with refurbishment. There would costs associated with its removal and refurbishment and the installation of an electrical supply if a defibrillator were to be installed. In the meantime, the Council asked the Clerk to notify CDC that the Parish wished to adopt the kiosk, subject to its being moved to Severals Green at BT’s expense.
Minutes of Bepton Parish Council meeting 24 November 2016
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521. Highways & Byways & Environment

a) Midhurst Area Cycling – Meeting at Stedham Memorial Hall on 30 November. Items on the Agenda include the Cocking to Midhurst A286 Path, Petersfield to Midhurst Railway Route project.
Dr Wilkinson to attend.

522. District /County Organisations

a) WSALC – AGM – 17 October – The Chairman attended the meeting. He said that County, and District councils are taking parish councils more seriously than in the past. Parish councils are taking on more of the ‘Green Initiative’ work than in the past as County is facing increasing difficulty finding the money to do it. Councils have been warned they may have to resort to ‘do-it-yourself’ schemes. WSCC may be able to help through providing equipment or training resources. There has been more use of SALC. The chairman will circulate the log in for the SALC website.

b) North West and North East Community Forum 10 November – Mrs Hart and Mrs Milner attended the meeting. There are 87 parishes in the Forum and the meeting was attended by 22. Most of the items were not to applicable to Bepton. Items for discussion included: affordable housing, Community Land Trusts and Shop Mobility.

c) SDNPA Town and parish workshops – Mrs Hart and Mrs Milner attended the meeting. The workshops held in October 2015 presented information on sites and settlements within the National Park including housing requirements for towns and villages and land allocations for new homes. At this workshop, all the proposed allocations and designations to be included in the South Downs Local Plan were presented. The workshop gave the Town and Parish Councils an opportunity to feedback to the SDNPA on the proposed allocations.

523. Date of next meeting – Thursday 26th January, 7pm at The Park Hotel, Bepton.

Chairman: …………………………………. Date: ……………………